LI Mingyao, Vivian La Pura Vida. That’s the first string of Spanish I have ever learnt. That means: that is life. Yes, the true life with Mediterranean sunshine and the Passionate Catholic beliefs. I’ve been longed for the moment to step out, looking up to the jewelry blue sky for so long. Everything makes me cry out of joy. While I realized that it is a study tour, that is, a journey stressed by “study” before I went drunk because of my dream becoming true. I have learnt so many things that are beyond my imagination, not to say inspirations on my major. It’s an undisputable rewarding experience. As one of the core member, the most I want to share is the pre-tour experience. The pre-tour period is a painstaking but worthwhile start point. We started the whole things just from a short phone call from Dr Leung, “You five are to arrange a study tour to Spain”, and that was all we had in hand. The inception of our ideas came from bundles of small ideas, inspirations and surprises we discovered through research. The longer we worked on the task, the more we enjoyed in our hope for those amazing things turning to reality. We settled on the theme of heritage and urban planning, the fascination of which Xi’an architectural people will never refuse. Then was the preparation of proposal. That lasted for almost a whole semester. Our e-mails flew through the whole Spain, to find out who would be willing to share knowledge and ideas with us. We couldn’t desire more for a positive response from even a little one of the companies or institutions, disappointed by empty inbox for so long. The good news came one after another, the first draft of itinerary was to be down. Proposal finished, we moved on to the presentation to board of our department. Once selected, we will be granted the chance to apply for further funding. It came out our proposal was more or less persuasive and won some competitiveness, we got our keys to Spain. And another round of waiting came: the result of funding application. Once we know the percentage of funding, the promotion and enrolment process can start. Students minded most is how much they should pay. We waited until March, only three months left before departure. And the deadlines of school work spread in front of us. We went through a hard time balancing those things. The schedule was so urgent that we started our promotion: making posters, creating homepage, presentation to students from different cohorts. However the overtaking letters were returned back with “No”. Even some senior students said, there won’t be much funding. We were even afraid, there would only be we five, and a teacher. All things seemed to teach us the art of waiting. Right blocked in the bottleneck, we received two sources of funding! And our funding was amount to 60% of the total budget! How excited! That struck the highest record a study tour could ever have! The acceptance letters came flooding back, we were like the farmers whose field gains a golden harvest. We figured out there was still a long long way to go. Enrolment interview, many times of pre tour meeting, pre-tour Spanish workshop and close collaboration of 20 students. To the accompany of final exams, pre-tour process was almost ready, with the visa application left. That is the most distressing lesson taught to me. I arranged the last day before going back home to apply for the visa, only to found the machine of Spain embassy was broken down, date of recovery not assured. To make things worse, I arbitrarily made the decision that I went back and apply for that in Beijing. That was a grueling memory for me both mentally and physically, and for my parents’ care and money. I went to Beijing for twice. But thanks god I finally got my visa, within the shortest time declared by the embassy. If not for the blessings on me, I would have stayed home, unable to cry out a drop of tear. That was definitely like a whip torturing me, warning me never wait until the last minute for everything and make the calm and sensible decisions.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 19:45:38 +0000
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